FEMA Awards Nearly $3.6 Million to Connecticut for COVID Overtime Costs

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending almost $3.6 million to the State of Connecticut to reimburse it for the cost of paying overtime to public safety staff during the pandemic.

A Public Assistance grant of $3,590,225 will go to the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services & Public Protection (CTDESPP) for the cost of paying employees overtime to staff the state’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) between March 2020 and June 2022.

439 CTDESPP employees worked a total of 27,893 hours of overtime in the identification, coordination, scheduling and deployment of available resources across the state to implement mitigation, preparedness and response measures to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

“FEMA is pleased to be able to assist to the State of Connecticut with these costs,” said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. “Reimbursing state, county, and municipal governments – as well as eligible non-profits and tribal entities – for the costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic is an important part of our nation’s ongoing recovery.”

FEMA’s Public Assistance program is an essential source of funding for states and communities recovering from a federally declared disaster or emergency.

So far, FEMA has provided over $906 million in Public Assistance grants to Connecticut to reimburse the state for pandemic-related expenses.